Neut, van der, Jan Tijmen

Date of birth:: February 26th, 1921 (Amsterdam/North Holland, The Netherlands)
Date of death:: April 15th, 1945 (Siegburg/North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany)
Buried on:: Dutch Honorary Cemetery Bloemendaal
Nationality:: Dutch

Biography

Jan van der Neut obtained his secondary school diploma in 1939. He then became an electrical installer.
In August 1940, Van der Neut was one of the founders of the illegal magazine Vrij Nederland (VN). The first issue, dated 31 August 1940, had a circulation of 130 copies and was produced by means of a mimeograph in his parental home in Amsterdam. He managed to get money from freemasons to finance the third issue of November 1940, which had a circulation of 750 copies. He distributed the magazine and tried to find addresses in the country where it could be mimeographed.
As a member of a group centred around retired major general of the Royal Dutch East Indies Army (KNIL) Van Tongeren and – after his arrest in October 1940 – a UN group, Van der Neut collected espionage material that was sent to England. He also worked for a resistance group that tried to get shot down English pilots back to England.
In March/April 1941 he was involved in publishing the magazine Nederland Vrij! (The Netherlands Free!), which published information obtained from espionage work. The magazine had a circulation of 40,000.
Van der Neut was arrested on 19 April 1941 after being betrayed by a V-man, a Vertrauensmann who infiltrated resistance groups in order to betray them. During his arrest, information about military installations in and around Bergen airfield was found on him. The publication of the magazine Nederland Vrij! was discontinued after his arrest.
After being sentenced to death twice, he was pardoned and given a fifteen-year prison sentence. He was imprisoned in Kleve, Rheinbach and Siegburg, where he died of exhaustion on 15 April 1945.
On the morning of Friday 8 June 1951, he was reburied in grave section 40 of the cemetery of honour.

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Sources

Photo 1: Eerebegraafplaats Bloemendaal
Photo 2: Arjo Eijgelsheim
- OGS - Eerebegraafplaats Bloemendaal